Advertising

Forza Motorsport 4 will bring together genre-defining, controller-based racing, the power and freedom of Kinect, and content from leading brands like “Top Gear” to create an automotive experience unlike anything before it.

“Forza Motorsport 4” will be the most expansive and vividly realistic automotive experience across any console, bringing you closer to the edge than you’ve ever been before. Through the power of Kinect, players will be able to step through the TV screen and jump into the driver’s seat while the engaging controller-based experience will let you take on the bone-jarring physics, unparalleled levels of customization, and rosters of dream cars and tracks. Offering gameplay that will electrify racing fans and excite car lovers and novices alike, the highest-rated racing franchise of this generation returns in fall 2011.

For fans looking for the best racing experience available today, the “Forza Motorsport 3 Ultimate Collection” for Xbox 360 is in stores now and includes the award-winning racing title, all previously released Game Add-ons, and the Koenigsegg CCX, LEXUS LFA, and Mercedes Benz SLS-AMG supercars as part of the “Stig’s Garage Car Pack.” Owners will also receive a special 90-minute video compilation featuring “Top Gear” hosts Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, as well as an exclusive Xbox Live “Top Gear” premium dashboard theme.

"Forza 4" may end up raising the bar when it comes to re-creating a track. According to Turn 10, developers rented out each track that appears in the game for two to three days, shooting terabytes worth of video and photos, and tracing the inside, middle and outside portions of the road surface with a commercial-grade GPS system. The resulting map detects road crowning, tiny changes in camber, or angle, and other anomalies with subcentimeter accuracy, all of which can be coded into the game for even more realism.

Despite using in-car recordings, the "Gran Turismo" series has been consistently criticized for its lackluster audio, particularly when compared with the "Forza" games. This is a major sticking point for fans of these dueling franchises. And while neither Sony nor Polyphony Digital responded to requests to talk about this article, Turn 10 Studios says that it captures all of its own audio, and isolates the intake, exhaust and engine sounds from each vehicle.

"Forza Motorsport 4" will have limited functionality with the body-sensing Kinect control system. Kinect utilizes a 3-D camera with an integrated microphone that allows users to interact with specially designed games without using a controller or headset, using only the motion of their bodies.

Creating increasingly convincing 3-D environments will require even more data and images of racetracks and vehicles. The same goes for Kinect, which Turn 10 has demonstrated as a kind of advanced ogling tool: Players can walk around their vehicles, but also explore inside, opening the car door with their hands, and craning and leaning to get a closer look at the whole interior. That means more time spent capturing and coding essentially every vehicle in the game.

The more interesting Kinect feature demonstrated so far is more subtle and less data-intensive. Never mind the phantom steering wheel you can grip and steer. In Kinect-only mode, when you lean to one side or the other, the driver's perspective edges with you, letting you peer around a blind curve or just slightly around a car before passing it.